Emo - Mode ou culte ?

Why no child is safe from the sinister cult of emo

Hannah was a happy 13-year-old until she became an 'emo' - part of a sinister teenage craze that romanticises death. Three months later she hanged herself.

[...]

In the unending bleakness of the weeks that have followed, the couple have fought to make sense of what happened.

Why on earth did their daughter — a popular, intelligent and attractive girl — do such a thing?
They could find only one clue: Hannah was what is known as an "emo".
Some describe it as a cult or a sect, but in reality the term — derived from the word "emotional" — encapsulates a trend that is becoming hugely popular among Britain's schoolchildren.

[...]

There is, though, growing concern that there is a deeply unhealthy undertone to the emo movement.
Some time before her death, Hannah's parents, who live in Kent, noticed scarring on the inside of her wrists.
When they questioned her about it, honest and open as ever, she told them she'd inflicted the wounds herself and that it was part of an emo "initiation ceremony".
Only after her death would they discover how she had secretly chatted online to emo followers all over the world, talking about death and of the "black parade" — a place where emos believe they go after they die.

[...]

(témoignage d'une fille de 11 ans qui se classifie en tant qu'émo)
"I think many of the concerns around emos aren't true," she says.
"To me, emos skateboard a lot, dress in darker colours and listen to alternative rock music.
"It's also true they probably think about feelings more than other people.
"I do get teased for being an emo because some people at school think it's just about suicide and self-harm.
"But I think you would have to be depressed already to self-harm — and I'm not depressed.
"I like going out dressed in emo clothes because it causes a stir. There aren't many emos where I live, so people look at you.
"It makes you feel individual."

[...]

In recent years, the growing reach of the internet and social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo has meant that the influences to which teenagers are exposed are not controlled by mere geography.

While this can have positive effects, Professor Stephen Briggs, a clinician in the adolescent department of the Tavistock Clinic, says it can also adversely affect the way teenagers develop.

"With mobile phones, the internet and Facebook you can create a virtual world that means you need never be alone," he says. "It means that you don't ever have to be out of sight — and that doesn't allow an adolescent to experience that sense of being a bit separate, of finding one's self.
"It means you don't have a chance to mature on your own; to know who you are."